Omnivore - Dumb

The Yale Daily News reports on some major stupidity in the academy:

When Darra Goldstein proposed writing a dissertation on food and Russian literature, her doctoral advisers were “aghast.” Food, they said, had no place in academia.

At a Pierson College Master’s Tea Tuesday, Goldstein, who is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, spoke to an audience of approximately 30 about her struggle to establish food as a legitimate academic pursuit.

Goldstein, who teaches Russian poetry, culture and art at Williams College, said fellow academics saw food as a visceral pursuit, not an intellectual one. But Goldstein said she couldn’t stop thinking about food.

“If it meant giving up food to be an academic, there was something wrong,” Goldstein said. “There had to be a place for people like me.”

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